O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword,The expectancy and rose of the fair state,The glass of fashion and the mould of form,Th'observed of all observers, quite, quite down.

(Ophelia in Hamlet, 3.1.149-153)

Philip Sidney, 1554-1586

It is held

That valour is the chiefest virtue, and

Most dignifies the haver.

(Cominius in Coriolanus, 2.2.79-81)

He that is truly dedicate to war

Hath no self love; nor he that loves himself

Hath not essentially, but by circumstance,

The name of valour. (Young Clifford in 2 Henry VI, 5.3.36-40)

  O love,

That thou couldst see my wars today, and knew'st

The royal occupation! Then shouldst thou see

A workman in't!

(Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, 4.4.15-18)

Child’s Armour, Henry Stuart Prince of Wales

'I judge the principal and true profession of a Courtier ought to be in feats of arms, the which above all I will have him practise lively, and to be known among other of his hardiness, for his achieving of enterprises, and for his fidelity toward him whom he serveth.' (Count Ludovico in Baldasar Castiglione's Il Libro del Cortegiano [1528] English edition, The Book of the Courtier [1588]

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, 1565-1601

Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales, 1594 – 1612

2nd Servingman: Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and breed ballad-makers.

1st Servingman: Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It's sprightly, waking, audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible, a getter of more bastard children than war's a destroyer of men.

2nd Servingman: 'Tis so, and as war in some sort may be said to be a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of cuckolds.

1st Servingman: Ay, and it makes men hate one another.

3rd Servingman: Reason, because they then less need one another. The wars for my money

Coriolanus (4.6. 215-228)

Early models of the warrior:Titus AndronicusHarry Hotspur

For his [honour], it stuck upon him as the sunIn the grey vault of heaven, and by his lightDid all the chivalry of England moveTo do brave acts. He was indeed the glassWherein the noble youth did dress themselves.He had no legs that practised not his gait;And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,Became the accents of the valiant;For those that could speak low and tardilyWould turn their own perfection to abuseTo seem like him. So that in speech, in gait,In diet, in affections of delight,In military rules, humours of blood,He was the mark and glass, copy and bookThat fashioned others. (Lady Percy in 2 Henry IV,

2.2.18-32)Harry Monmouth: Prince HalSir John Falstaff[Welsh Women]

Challenge to warrior's self-hood/martial masculinity/virtue 1. O sweet Juliet,Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,And in my temper softened valour's steel.

(Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, 3.1.108-110) 

O thy vile lady,She has robbed me of my sword.

(Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, 4.15.22-23)

Ha, what shout is this? ...My wife comes foremost... But out affection!All bond and privilege of nature break;Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.What is that curtsy worth? Or those dove's eyesWhich can make gods forsworn? I melt, and am notOf stronger earth than others... O, a kissLong as my exile, sweet as my revenge. (Coriolanus in Coriolanus 5.3.19-44)

Challenge to warrior's self-hood/martial masculinity/virtue

Whether 'twas pride......whether defect of judgement...or whether nature,Not to be other than one thing, not movingFrom th' casque to th'cushion, but commanding peaceEven with the same austerity and garbAs he controllled the war ... made him feared,So hated, and so banished. (Aufidius in Coriolanus, 5.1.37-48)   Marcus: Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome...

...name thee in election for the empire...Be candidatus then, and put it on,And help to set a head on headless Rome.

Titus: A better head her glorious body fitsThan his that shakes for age and feebleness.What, should I don this robe and trouble you?Be chosen with proclamations today,Tomorrow yield up rule, resign my life,And set abroad new business for you all.Rome, I have been thy soldier forty years,And let my country's strength successfully,And buried one-and-twenty valiant sonsKnighted in field, slain manfully in armsIn right and service of their noble country.Give me a staff of honour for mine age,But not a sceptre to control the world.

(Titus Andronicus, 1.1.179 - 199)

Prototype: Tamburlaine in Tamburlaine the Great (1587)

 From jigging veins of rhyming mother-witsAnd such conceits as clownage keeps in payWe'll lead you to the stately tent of WarWhere you shall hear the Scythian TamburlaineThreat'ning the world with high astounding termsAnd scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.View but his picture in this tragic glass,And then applaud his fortunes as you please.

Prologue

Conquest 1. Zenocrate (daughter Sultan of Egypt) Zen: Ah, shepherd, pity my distressed plight,If, as thou seem'st, thou art so mean a man...

[...] I am, my lord -- for so you do import.Tam: I am a lord, for so my deeds shall proveAnd yet a shepherd by my parentage...Lie here, ye weeds that I disdain to wear!This complete armour and this curtle-axeAre adjuncts more beseeming Tamburlaine.

(1.2.7-43)

Tamburlaine: Disdains Zenocrate to live with me?Or you, my lords, to be my followers?Think you I weigh this treasure more than you?Not all the gold in India's wealthy armsShall buy the meanest soldier in my train.Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,Brighter than is silver Rhodope,Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,Thy person is more worth to TamburlaineThan the possession of the Persian crown,Which gracious stars have promised at my birth.A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee,Mounted on steeds swifter than Pegasus.Thy garments shall be made of Median silk,Enchased with precious jewels of mine own,More rich and valurous than Zenocate's;With milk-white harts upon an ivory sledThou shalt be drawn amidst the frozen poolsAnd scale the icy mountains' icy tops,Which with thy beauty will be soon resolved;My martial prizes, with five hundred men,Won on the fifty-headed Volga's waves,Shall all we offer to Zenocrate,And then myself to fair Zenocrate.

Techelles: What now? In love?.

But this is she with whom I am in love.

Conquest 2. Theridamas + a thousand Persian horsemen Tamburlaine: Then shall we fight courageously with them.

Or look you I should play the orator?Techelles: No. Cowards and faint-hearted runaways

Look for orations when the foe is near.Our swords shall play the orators for us.

Usumcasane: Come, let us meet them at the mountain topAnd with a sudden and an hot alarmDrive all their horses headlong down the hill.

Tamburlaine: Stay, Techelles, ask a parley first.Open the mails, yet guard the treasure sure.Lay out our golden wedges to the view,That their reflections may amaze the Persians. (1.2.128-

140)  * * * * * Tamburlaine: Forsake thy king, and do but join with me,

And we will triumph over all the world.I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chainsAnd with my hand turn Fortune's wheel about,And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphereThan Tamburlaine be slain or overcome....

Theridamas: Not Hermes, prolocutor to the gods,Could use persuasions more pathetical...But shall I prove a traitor to my king? ...Won with thy words and conquered with thy looks,I yield myself, my men and horse to thee... (1.2.172-229)

Conquest 3. Cosroe Therdidamas: You see, my lord, what working words he hath (2.3.25)

* * * *Cosroe: ...death arrests the organ of my voice,

Who, ent'ring at the breach thy sword hath made,Sacks every vein and artier of my heart...My bloodless body waxeth chill and cold,And with my blood my life slides through my

wound. (2.7.8-43)* * * *

Tamburlaine: Nature, that framed us of four elementsWarring within our breasts for regiment,Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.Our souls, whose faculties can comprehendThe wondrous architecture of the worldAnd measure every wand'ring planet's course,Still climbing after knowledge infiniteAnd always moving as the restless spheres,Wills us to ear ourselves and never restUntil we reach the ripest fruit of all,That perfect bliss and sole felicityThe sweet fruition of an earthly crown.(2.7.18-29)

Mycetes: Accurst be he that first invented war!

They knew not, ah, they knew not, simple men,

How those were hit by pelting cannon shot

Stand staggering like a quivering aspen leaf

Fearing the force of Boreas' boist'rous blasts.

In what a lamentable case were IIf nature had not given me wisdom's lore!For kings are clouts that every man

shoots at,Our crowns the pin that thousands seeks

to cleave.Therefore in policy I think it goodTo hide it close -- a goodly stratagem,And far from any man that is a fool.So shall not I be known, or if I be,They cannot take away my crown from

me.Here will I hide it in this simple hole.

(2.4.1-15)

Conquest 4, 5 6 (Bajazeth, Egypt, Damascus)'away with them, I say, and show them Death'

 WORD SWORDSPECTACLE(BATTLE?)

Put the rest to the sword. [Exit Virgins]Ah, fair Zenocrate, divine Zenocrate!Fair is too foul an epithet for thee...Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my soulThan all my army to Damascus' walls; ...What is beauty saith my sufferings, then?If all the pens that ever poets heldHad fed the feeling of their masters' thoughtsAnd every sweetness that inspired their hearts,Their minds and muses on admired themes;If all the heavenly quintessence they stillFrom their immortal flowers of poesy,Wherein as in a mirror we perceiveThe highest reaches of a human wit;If these had made one poem's periodAnd all combined in beauty's worthinessYet should there hover in their restless headsOne though, one grace, one wonder at the leastWhich into words no virtue can digest.But how unseemly is it for my sex,My discipline of arms and chivalry,My nature and the terror of my name,To harbour thoughts effeminate and faint! ......every warrior that is rapt with loveOf fame, of valour, and of victory ... Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits [BUT]...virtue solely is the sum of gloryAnd fashions men with true nobility. (5.1.135-190)

Tamburlaine: And now, my lords and loving followers,That purchased kingdoms by your martial

deeds,Cast off your armour, put on scarlet robes,Mount up your royal places of estate,Environed with troops of martial men,And there make laws to rule your provincesHang up your weapons on Alcides post,For Tamburlaine takes truce with all the

world.Thy first betrothed love, Arabia,Shall we with honour, as beseems, entomb,With this great Turk and his fair emperess.Then after all these solemn exequiesWe will our celebrated rites of marriage

solemnize.(Tamburlaine, 5.1.521-

533)